Obama Family Portrait

Every year my parents made us take a family portrait. My parents started when they were married and before children even came, they had a yearly portrait taken on their anniversary. Then as the children came, every summer, we had a family portrait.

My mom put all 20 years of them in one book and it is very fun to look at all the years and watch our family grow from first just mom and dad and then babies as they came to the family until finally the family was grown. As I teen I hated the yearly portraits. My mom would make us wear color coordinated or matching outfits and some years it was just plain embarrassing.

One year she bought us all orange t-shirts and we looked like a bunch of orange pumpkins. Usually she made us wear dress clothes. Some years the outfits weren't so bad. But I still hated the pictures anyway. The worst one was one year when I was a teen she made us all wear pajamas. Matching red pajamas. And then she made us go to the mall in the pajamas to the photography studio.

In the mall in our pajamas! I saw some of the kids from my high school. I thought I would die. And you know, now, as an adult, that is my favorite family picture. My family is no longer all here, but those portraits are. I want to do that same thing with my family. It's a great family tradition. It looks like my family isn't the only family to have this tradition.

I recently saw the Obama family portrait. It was just beautiful. Of course, they can afford the best photographer out there. But it really doesn't matter. You can take your family portrait with a camera at home. We did that. We had one we took in the front yard in the snow in our sweatshirts. Another one of my favorites. Don't miss the opportunity to take your family portrait this year.